Geek Homeworld: Oscars 2017 Recap: And the Winner is…or is it? (2024)

Mar 1, 2017

Oscars 2017Recap: And the Winner is…or is it?

I am glad I took a couple of days to process whathad happened at the end of the Oscars 2017 telecast. My initialreaction was one of shock and anger. The film I believe to be thebest of the year (La La Land) had won Best Picture. And then ithadn’t. Instead it went to Moonlight which didn’t figure into myTop Ten films this year, though it did crack my Top 25. In fact,out of the nine nominated films Moonlight ranked last for me. Ifound the pacing too slow and I actually had a hard time stayingawake while watching it. But if I had written a recap on Mondaymorning I would have done Moonlight a disservice. I would havefocused on the debacle that took place instead of the historicalimportance of this film.

Moonlight became the first film to win Best Picturethat has a LGBT community member at the center of its story. It’sthe second film to win Best Picture that was directed by anAfrican-American; joining Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave. It maynot have been the best made film of the year but it was withoutquestion the most culturally important. Moonlight depicts a youngblack man coming to terms with his sexuality while subtlyproclaiming “I will be who I am meant to be”. Like Omar in TheWire, the character of Little/Chiron/Black grows into acontradiction of the stereotype the world has come to know of a gayman. That is the real beauty of the film…shattering the stereotypeand opening the world up to acceptance. In my younger more ignorantdays, I was admittedly hom*ophobic. I never actively discriminatedagainst hom*osexuals but I didn’t understand how someone could beattracted to the same gender. Then I saw Brokeback Mountain. Thatfilm opened my eyes and taught me that you love who you love; it isnot a choice. I hope that Moonlight will have the same effect on anew generation. I think that it will because I believe in the powerof film. I believe in the power of storytelling.

It’s a shame that Moonlight didn’t get its fullmoment in the sun. Its triumph will always be linked to the epicfail of the accounting firm of PwC. The partner whose only job wasto correctly hand out envelopes was too busy tweeting to fullyfocus on the task at hand. He will almost certainly be fired andPwC may lose its contract with the Academy Awards, as well as otheraccounts. But that won’t make up for robbing Moonlight’s cast andcrew of that initial rush of hearing their film’s name called outas Best Picture. Thank goodness for the grace and humility of La LaLand producer Jordan Horowitz. His thoughtfulness created anunforgettable moment of comradery when he announced the true winnerand said, “I’m going to be really thrilled to hand this to myfriends from Moonlight.” I, in turn, will give credit where creditis due.

Now that I’ve said my piece on the Best Picturecontroversy, I want to simply go over some of my favorite momentsof the night…

Justin Timberlake’s opening performance – The Oscarsare typically a little stuffy so it was nice to see the eveningstart off with some energy. JT’s ‘song of the summer’ brought thecrowd to their feet before they had to sit around for fourhours.

Legendary Duos – Charlize Theron & Shirley MacLaine,Javier Bardem & Meryl Streep, Faye Dunaway & Warren Beatty wereawesome pairings but my absolute favorite of the night was SethRogen & Michael J. Fox. Rogen’s words were synonymous with mychildhood; I grew up with the DeLorean and Back to theFuture.

Cravalho powers through – 16-year-old Auli’ICravalho’s performance of Moana’s nominated song “How Far I’ll Go”was outstanding. Not only were her vocals phenomenal, she got hitin the head with a flag and kept her composure.

Tour Group – The bit might have gone on too long butthe tourists truly reveled in the moment. The looks on their faceswere priceless. Imagine getting to meet all those A-listers on thefront row, being married by Denzel Washington, kissing MerylStreep’s hand, and touching Mahershala Ali’s statuette…all in thespan of five minutes. Gary from Chicago sure made the most ofit.

In Memoriam – This year we lost way too manytalented people. An impeccable rendition of Joni Mitchell’s “BothSides Now” by Sara Bareilles set the mood while we said our lastgoodbyes to the likes of Willy Wonka and Princess Leia.

The Academy spreads the love – As much as I wantedLa La Land to dominate the night, I did enjoy seeing many differentfilms take home hardware. Only four films won multiple Oscars (LaLa Land with 6, Moonlight 3, Hacksaw Ridge 2, and Manchester by theSea 2). Arrival, Fences, The Jungle Book, Fantastic Beasts andWhere to Find Them, Suicide Squad, and Zootopia all won a singletrophy.

La La Land takes 7…okay 6 – Despite having the rugpulled out from under it on the evening’s final award; La La Landstill had a pretty solid night. The film’s greatest attributes wererewarded with wins for Best Director, Actress, Cinematography,Production Design, Score, and Song. Of course I would have loved tosee it win Best Picture but 6 wins and 14 nominations is still anincredible feat. It will go down as one of the greatest films inthe history of cinema.